For more than 10 days now, I have made numerous attempts to contact the Centre for Health Protection, Department of Health, and Food and Health Bureau. These attempts were to urge them to grant a compassionate exemption from the current travel restrictions for a mother who is a Hong Kong permanent identity card holder and currently in Scotland, to come to Hong Kong and care for her son who is battling cancer. I am yet to receive a response from any of these three departments other than a generic reply which tells me nothing I do not already know. The request was simple: please make an exception based on compassionate grounds and waive the requirement that this mother first has to transit via another country for three weeks before boarding a flight to Hong Kong. Of course I understand the need to protect the health of the Hong Kong public in the middle of a pandemic. However, to be clear, this is a woman who has already had two Covid-19 vaccinations, is prepared to submit a negative Covid-19 test 72 hours before departure, to be tested again on arrival and to quarantine in one of the government-approved hotels for the required three weeks once she gets here. She quite simply poses no public health risk. And yet, despite the urgency of her son’s medical condition, compounded by the fact that he lives alone with no one to care for him, it appears that the Hong Kong government is unwilling to assist and exercise compassion even in tragic and exceptional circumstances. It is hard to see from a legal standpoint why a compassionate exemption from such restrictive rules cannot be granted in this particular case. The relevant regulations themselves provide that different conditions may be specified for different travellers, and that certain persons may be exempt in exceptional circumstances from the restrictions. Please could the Centre for Health Protection/ Department of Health/ Food and Health Bureau clarify immediately on what basis they have so far declined to intervene and whether they are prepared to assist in this case? As his doctor has made clear, time is of the essence! Alex Norton, principal lecturer, Department of Professional Legal Education, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong